


Man is a wolf to man

by loriri



Category: 13 Reasons Why (TV)
Genre: Angst, Heavy Angst, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, M/M, Sexual Violence, Swearing, Underage Rape/Non-con, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-25
Updated: 2017-07-25
Packaged: 2018-12-06 22:37:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,832
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11610375
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/loriri/pseuds/loriri
Summary: Inspired by the prompt where Bryce wants to hurt Justin by hurting Alex.TW: description of rape and physical violence.





	Man is a wolf to man

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Untouchable](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11096361) by [fandxmmagic](https://archiveofourown.org/users/fandxmmagic/pseuds/fandxmmagic). 



> Long note be ready:
> 
> Hii everyone, this is the first work I post here or anywhere ever in the internet tbh, soo I hope it's decent enough for you to like it. Please, read at your own risk. I know that such things as rape, abuse, violence, mental illnesses, etc. shouldn't be romanticized at any circumstances, so I apologize if anyone gets offended or something alike. I just wanted to post this because I love Justlex and this is a free world and I don't know bro I write whatever I want for fun instead of doing stuff like homework or studying. I worked on this so much, I don't even know why but I did and I'm sort of proud so I hope someone likes it.
> 
> Also I'd like to share that I was inspired by another work from this site (Untouchable by fandxmmagic) and that's it.
> 
> ALSO it's pretty long, so get comfy.
> 
> And Bryce never raped Jess here, let's say that he and Justin hated each other to death because of something that happened between them when they were friends and people started to hate Bryce. Sorry I didn't work on this part specifically, I just was focused on the main point of the story, I hope it's not confusing lol I'm really sorry.

When Bryce Walker discovered Justin Foley’s weak spot in an accidental encounter, he couldn’t just ignore it.

English philosopher, Thomas Hobbes, once cited:  _“ho_ _mo homini lupus”_

_“Man is a wolf to man”_

The quotation referred, metaphorically, to the wild animal that the man carried inside, able to commit big atrocities and outrages against the ones of their own specie. And the wolf, being one of the few animals with the sense of revenge, couldn’t fit any better with Hobbes’s judgements. In the other hand, Bryce Walker being the rancorous spoiled, rich kid he was, identified himself with that animal in particular. The whole Thomas Hobbes’s “ _wolf is a wolf to man”_ deal fit Bryce too well. He was a wolf himself.

He thought about it, the way he always discovered that button that ruined people, the way he knew everybody’s weak spot just to use shamelessly against them. Just to feed the wolf inside him. All he did was watch close, notice the unseen secrets covered by their own shadows, because if there was something that Bryce learned throughout the years, it was that people tend to hide what they want to protect the most

One morning, five minutes before lunch, Bryce was attempting to leave the school’s building to sneak out and skip History, maybe to smoke some pot in his house or just lay by the pool under the warm sun drinking beer or some strong liquor. He could do whatever he wanted, he could waste all of his money in expensive alcohol and drugs, and then it would be easily recharged the next day by his parents from somewhere in the world. He didn’t care. They never asked either.

He was exiting through some exit door at the back of the gym, the one he usually used with his friends –with Justin most of the time– to leave school whenever they wanted. If you knew where and when to hide, sneaking out from Liberty High was easy as stealing candy from a baby while riding a bike.

Anyway… as he crossed the door and stepped out the building, a curious scene caught his eyes.

Alex Standall against the wall of concrete with Justin Foley cupping his face, kissing him fervently.

Bryce quickly hid behind the door and opened it enough to witness his friend kissing another boy in secret, hiding from the rest of the people. It didn’t seem just like a simple, awkward kiss. It was reckless, desperate and hot. Alex’s hands were on Justin’s shoulders as the brunette held the back of his neck, preventing each other from pulling away. Their heads were tilting between intervals and the speed of their breathings were synced, their chests raising and shrinking, raising and shrinking.

It was _definitely_ hot.

“Holy shit” the hidden boy murmured to himself. He closed his mouth just to swallow, and opened it again while the astonishment still settled within him.

He stood there long enough to watch them slow down, put their foreheads together, and steal small kisses from each other. Alex kissed his forehead, then the tip of his nose, then then his lips. Justin kissed his right cheek, and trailed kisses to his neck, then to his lips again. It looked like _something_ was going on between them. From Bryce’s judgment, feelings were unquestionably involved.

He always knew Justin had the possibility to like boys the same way he liked girls. Bryce blamed it on the lack of male affection in his life. It wasn’t like Justin didn’t have any masculine figure to follow, he had the worst of them but still had. However, Justin as a human being with feelings and needs, never received enough affection from a man. From a father, for example. So Bryce guessed Justin unconsciously craved affection from men, as if some part of him needed it.

But… Justin with Standall?

It was unexpected, because if someone ever had to define a relationship of "frenemies", they would answer “Alex Standall and Justin Foley” without hesitation. The two boys were so different from each other, yet so alike. In one hand, Alex was painfully sarcastic. He was the one that snapped the smart comments everyone avoided to say aloud, because they were scared of accepting the truth. In the other hand, Justin was impulsive and stubborn, and to every word that crossed his mouth, Alex would roll his eyes to and be the first one to contradict him.

The next day, they would get high with their friends and stare at each other even when the other one wasn’t aware. The next day they would steal from each other bites and sips from their food and drinks without asking, and without the other seeming near to mad. Jesus, Bryce once caught Justin drunk and unconsciously laying his head down on Alex’s lap, and Alex didn’t complain or even care at all. Definitely those kind of behaviors weren’t ‘normal’ for two boys that, theoretically, hated each other.

Right?

They were frenemies at their finest level. But frenemies didn’t kiss each other _that_ way, or did they? Correction, they don't even kiss.

Besides their dissimilarities, they shared aspects that weighed more than the differences. There were aspects that tied them up together in a way they couldn’t have the sense to control. The emotional damage, the vulnerability hidden behind a pair of aggressive eyes, behind the challenging attitude and behind the irritating comments. Something about the other boy’s inner chaos and susceptibility felt dangerously attractive, not as finding the other's pain cute, but as finding themselves within the other boy so naturally, so safely. There was a connection they didn’t disliked, not necessarily, not at all. Actually, it was appreciable and sort of comforting.

With so useful information as straight, all-star jock, basketball team captain Justin Foley kissing the sulky, outsider, weird kid with white hair and septum rings Alex Standall, Bryce knew exactly what to do. Even though a picture of the scene would've done more than enough, something inside him wanted to cause harm, the wolf inside him was roaring from hunger and pleading for revenge, or fun like Bryce would call it. Right there he realized that the wolf inside him had to be generously fed.

 

 

“Wanna go upstairs?”

Alex was talking, or preferably just pretending to have fun, with Zach and other jocks from their social group. Their conversations were ridiculously uninteresting to the white haired boy, and he really tried to make the effort to stay connected and show something near to interest. But that night at that party, as hard as he tried to follow the topic and find their remarks funny, he decided it was too exhausting and even pointless, so he simply left to refill the empty cup in his hand. The perfect excuse to allow himself a break and do something with his hands. The jocks didn’t seem to notice, anyway.

Seconds later, he had Justin Foley’s hands in his abdomen and lips whispering to his ear. Alex quickly turned around and made Justin take a step back. As much as he adored Justin’s hands all over him, his mouth brushing against his skin and seducing his mind with provocative suggestions, he did it when they were alone and not in the middle of a party.

“Are you drunk?”

“Not drunk _, drunk_ ”

“Okay” Alex said slightly nodding and turning around to grab a red plastic cup “I’ll just give you some water, just in case”

He felt Justin taking his arm, making him turn back around and pulling him just a little closer, but not close enough as the two of them would like to be.

“I don’t need water” Justin said grinning in a frown, as if it was pretty obvious “I need you”

“Justin, you know that’d be me taking advantage of you, right?”

“Not if you get drunk too”

“Jesus”

Alex saw Zach’s tall body approaching to them, eyes first on Alex, then on Justin. He pressed his lips while trying to pass through the people obstructing the way, greeting and smiling to whoever he recognized.

“Is he okay?”

Alex handed Justin a cup of water and guided it to Justin’s mouth, helping him drink it properly.

“Yeah. Just a bit stumbling, though”

“I’m fucking fine” Justin exclaimed slightly shaking his head “God”

He was enjoying the effects of the alcohol in his body, driving his mind to a place where all that mattered was the present. Something about feeling carefree, cheerful and disconnected from reality was dangerously satisfying, as if he was more alive than ever, and nothing could possibly stop him.

The drunk jock started to walk away willing to join the multitude, planning to lose himself from Zach’s babysitter complex and to see Alex later without any of his friends intruding. As Justin attempted to walk, he felt Alex’s fingers quickly hold his arms as he stumbled, and he found himself supporting his balance on Alex’s right shoulder. Zach fixed his eyes in Alex’s and pointed the stairs with his head, insisting that it’d be better for Justin to go upstairs, away from the multitude, to lay down on a bed and properly rest. It was Jess's house anyway, and she wouldn’t deny.

“I’ll take him” Alex mouthed to Zach, still holding Justin’s arm.

Zach asked him if he was sure, and Alex just nodded. That wasn’t the first time a tipsy Justin approached to Alex in a party and whispered certain things to his ear, making the younger boy resist all his desires to be with Justin just for the fact that the brunette wasn’t consciously aware of his acts. Maybe Alex wasn’t the warmest person in a social circle, but he tried his best to not be an immoral asshole.

“Call me if you need any help”

Alex nodded again and observed Zach’s body disappear into the crowd. Well, not really _disappear,_ for Zach was too tall for that, but he saw him leave anyway.

“Okay Justin, come on”

 

 

Making Justin Foley and his drunk, teenage hormones fall asleep must’ve been one of the hardest works Alex had to accomplish. He never remembered it being a hard work. Alex would gently stroke his hair and take his hand, drawing circles with his thumb until he made sure Justin was dreaming. That night Justin wanted way more than that.

He closed the door silently, making sure Justin was lost in his dreams or something near, just sleeping the drunkenness out. As much as he wanted to stay and make him company for the rest of the night –and avoid the party–, he had Jess on the phone and a few vodka bottles to bring downstairs.

“Okay, okay” he said covering his left ear, trying to understand the girl’s words over the sound of the music “Again, where were they?”

 _“My room”_ he heard the tone of her voice raise so he could understand clearly _"In the closet"_

He walked through the hallway to find soon the specified door. Her name’s initial was glued to it, looking like she’s been keeping it for years. Bright pink, big as the size of his face. It reminded Alex to his childhood. He had a vivid memory where he wanted to decorate his door that way, with stickers, letters that spelled his name and drawings, but his dad didn’t let him because the door would get damaged. It cost him multiple “A”s and a football friend to let him hang posters in his room when he was thirteen.

An irritating squeak escaped from the hinges as he opened the door, the sound resonating in his eardrums. Light pink with little flowers, messy sheets laying on an undone bed, shoes and clothes gathered here and there, walls painted in light pink looking almost white, and a pair of sports shoes right in front of the door, from which Alex almost stumbled and had to push to a side with his foot.

He turned the lights on and located the closet.

“In the closet then?”

“ _Yeah, next to that crazy Nerf gun I’m hiding from my brother”_

“Why? They’re cool”

“ _Not when you’re having breakfast with a hangover, or studying, or watching TV, or fucking bathing”_

Alex laughed to the comment, hearing Jessica from the other side of the line join him with a chuckle.

He opened the closet doors and quickly found the two glass bottles in the left corner of the messy closet.

“Done”

“ _Perfect”_ Jess exclaimed _“Thanks baby, I owe you one”_

Jess blew him a kiss trough the phone and hung up, leaving Alex standing in the middle of the room with a smirk on his face. He shove his phone in the front pocket of his dark jeans and took the bottles. They looked really expensive, and too luxurious for just vodka. Alex took a look at the name, and indeed, they belonged to an expensive brand. Too classy for a stupid high school party, in Alex’s opinion. Of course, someone like Marcus would never insult himself and buy some gross, cheap alcohol that could be easily mistaken by gasoline.

At the end, teenagers in a party didn’t drink alcohol to flavor the luxuriousness. They just wanted to get drunk enough to distract themselves from the real world.

Alex, absorbed by his own thoughts, almost jumped when he heard the door open, the hinges emitting the same irritable sound from before and the lights turned off immediately. He turned around mentally prepared to find a couple kissing and willing to hook up in there, mentally prepared to shoo them out Jess’s room.

“Hey, get out-”

Well, in that point, out of any possibly person, he absolutely didn’t expect to see Bryce Walker’s silhouette distinguishing from the darkness of the room.

“Shit Standall, I thought I’d never find you”

Bryce closed the door with his foot and kept his hands inside his pockets, receiving a confused and judgmental look from the younger boy in front of him.

“Are you lost?” Alex said, frowning. He wondered, how did he even get in? Who would let him inside? Who would let him go fucking upstairs? “You should go, Bryce.”

“I just need to talk to you. It won’t take long”

Bryce shrugged after Alex asked him why, as if he didn’t know, but the smirk on his face told otherwise. Alex knew that expression, he noticed it before on him. He did that in order to seem easy, reliable and mysterious at the same time, but Bryce definitely wasn’t the guy people would prefer to rely on.

“I need to bring these downstairs” Alex shook the bottles giving Bryce an obvious look, telling him that he didn’t share the same desires to stablish a conversation in that moment, or ever.

He started to head the door. Alex didn’t feel comfortable at all with Bryce’s company and never had. He didn’t want to deal with him and that stupid look in his face that exhibited the control he believed he had over everybody. God, Alex just wanted to _leave_ that room, but the bigger body of the other boy moved in order obstruct the way out.

“Are you fucking kidding me?”

Alex tried to push Bryce to a side, but instantly he was the only one being pushed back. His heart jumped in exasperation as he saw Bryce lock the door. Whatever psychotic game Bryce was playing, Alex didn’t want to participate in it.

“Hey, what’s your fucking problem?”

“Are you and Justin together now?”

Alex stood agape, his mind unprepared to answer the one question he didn’t even understood himself. They weren’t that obvious out in public, weren’t they? And they weren’t together as _together_ , they were just starting to know each other in a very intimate, physical, emotional way. _Okay_ , they were _secretly together_ , and the two individually acknowledged it, even though they wanted to believe that they were ‘just hanging out’ and ‘not together but couldn’t see other people because it didn’t feel the same’.

“We’re not”

“I’m not stupid, Alex. I know you are”

Seconds later, Alex grinned. He couldn’t believe the thought that crossed his mind. Would there be a chance that Bryce felt… something? Alex always noticed Bryce’s low-key obsession with Justin, as if the boy belonged to Bryce just like everything else he wanted.

“Are you, like, jealous?” Alex asked, jokingly giving Bryce a concerned face “Do you like Justin?”

“God, Standall, you’re so fucking annoying” Bryce said, tiredly rolling his eyes “No, I don’t like Justin”

“So? Why do you even care? It’s none of your fucking business”

Alex tried to reach for the handle again, but Bryce made it impossible, _again_.

“Bryce, I swear to God… _Move_ ”

“You see, that’s where you’re wrong” Bryce said, approaching to the other boy “Like it or not, Standall, Justin’s friendships _and_ relationships are my business too”

“He hates you and they’re not” Alex answered back, keeping the distance between Bryce and him. One step forward from Bryce, one step backwards from Alex.

“I bet Justin likes you enough to miss you when you’re not around. I bet he was blindly touched by the way you made him feel safe and, I don’t know, significant” Alex heard the mock in his voice, which made the blond feel even angrier and more irritated “Shit, that’s a tight bond you got there”

“Shut up, Bryce. You don’t know shit”

“Relax, I just wanted you to know, when Justin likes someone, he _really_ does. It’s like, he never gives a shit about anything, but when he does it’s fucking chaotic”

“Okay Bryce, thanks. Really” Alex didn’t tell where the conversation was leading to, or what Bryce wanted from it. If there was a feeling in Alex, other than exasperation, it was confusion at its finest level “You done?”

“Not really”

Unexpectedly, Alex felt the back his body harshly falling down on the bed behind him and the bottles seemed to escape from his hands. He tried to get up with the urge of walking away from the other teen, but Bryce’s hands were pushing Alex’s shoulders down, using the weight of his body to prevent him to move. In that moment, Alex recognized that Bryce fulfilled his expectations of being the strong and weighty person that his robust body seemed to be.

“You know Justin and I share _everything_ , right?” Bryce asked in a low tone, striving to keep Alex steady under him “What’s mine, is his. What’s his, is mine”

“Get the fuck off”

Bryce knew what he had to do.

Alex didn’t have a single clue on what to expect from the way Bryce was behaving. A part of him believed it was just a prank. A frustrating, annoying, stupid prank, with a camera in the room, and Monty hiding under the bed, ready to jump out of nowhere to humiliate Alex as he always did.

The other part of him felt enormously unsafe. Something about the tension between them made things really, really weird. He wouldn’t let Alex leave the room, he started to talk about how Justin and he shared every single item, even their relationships.

Alex undoubtedly hoped it was the prank.

“Take your pants off” Bryce firmly said.

_Wait- what?_

Alex whined in pain as Bryce shifted the weight of his body in his left arm, now on Alex’s chest. It hurt like a motherfucker, the pressure of Bryce’s elbow sinking down in his skin while his forearm supported his weight on Alex’s ribs. He tried to stop Bryce, he did, but the incompetence of his actions made him feel exceptionally weak.

“I’m not gay, man. S’just that, this would kill Justin so bad”

Bryce’s free hand lowered to the edge of Alex’s pants, but slightly grunted as he touched a belt perfectly adjusted to Alex’s hips. He managed to unfasten the belt with his right hand, fast enough to make Alex almost shiver.

“Bryce stop” Alex found himself begging, almost breaking the knot in his throat made of anger, fear and panic “Please”

Justin, Hannah and Jess were the ones running through Alex’s mind. He felt the impotency, the panic, the angst and the repulsion. Justin was there, inside his head, and Alex felt the need to protect him even though he was the one that needed help, he wanted to hold the brunette in his arms and make him feel safe. The contacts that were once soft turned into tough grips, the fingers that were once careful turned into aggressive hands, the eyes that were once loving and warm turned into dark and intimidating holes, and situations that were once voluntary turned into a painfully forced one.

Bryce pulled down his own pants, Alex’s following. His dark jeans seemed to slide down without much struggle due to the thinness of his legs. It felt like less than seconds when his pants were lower than he wanted them to be.

Alex felt so useless and so weak to Bryce’s impulses, he wanted to cry like a fucking fragile, useless baby. He even felt the air vanishing away, and it seemed impossible to control the nausea that made his face look paler than ever, or the way his heart was beating so, so fast. In that moment, in that instant were his own pants were being pulled down in an involuntary act, he recognized the abuse was _real_.

Bryce was going to do it. Bryce was going to rape Alex just to fuck up with Justin Foley’s mind.

Bryce was going to do it, just to ruin Justin Foley.

He closed his eyes fast, eyelids covering the salty water coating them.

“Bryce… please”

The older boy on top of him readjusted himself between Alex’s legs, feeling his disgusting bulge against his crotch, and his free hand holding his waist in a hard grip. Again, he tried to push Bryce off, but his grip was painfully steady, his body too heavy compared to Alex’s, his arms too strong… But most dangerously, his will too committed.

“Fuck, give up and stay still” Bryce spat hardening the grip.

Alex felt so repulsed about the whole situation, he even felt repulsed with himself. Something about having other hands than Justin’s touching his bare skin felt so wrong and unfitting. Alex wasn’t the most emotional teenager, feelings were somewhat overrated in his home. It wasn’t like his father told him not to feel ever again and to be cold as stone, but the way he referred to feelings whenever his youngest son felt sad or affected, as if they were equal to pointless weakness, left Alex with no other choice than to avoid them. In his house, weakness was a sin. They never talked about emotions or “that shit”.

That night, Alex felt like the most sinful person on earth. If his father found out about Bryce and that night, the odds were that he would complaint his son for not standing up for himself like a proper man, like a real fighter.

If only his old man could take a minute to understand his son.

He was so absorbed by his thoughts, he almost ignored the shake of the handle and the constant pushes of the door. It was hitting the frame as someone tried to open it, as if the door would miraculously unlock itself from the persistent pulls and pushes.

Probably, in a parallel universe, that mysterious person would care enough to break the door down just to make sure there wasn’t a chaos inside the room. Alex didn’t get his hopes up because, in the shitty universe he was in, that person probably would be too drunk to keep trying.

“No fucking way there’s people fucking in my room” they heard a furious voice “Hey! Get the fuck out” she said, hitting the door with her hand.

_Jess._

A part of him told him to use that one chance to scream for-

“Help! Please help me-”

“Shut up” Bryce said in a loud whisper, covering Alex’s mouth with his free hand, but the younger boy kept emitting cries from his throat. He kept doing it even if the sound was basically nonexistent “Shut the fuck up”

In the other side of the door, the brunette girl turned her head to Zach, who looked at her with a confused expression. After Jess called Alex and noticed that her friend never showed up with the bottles, she had no other choice than to locate him, so after four missed calls and a variety of unread texts, she had to look for the boy just to make sure the bottles at least remained under his watch.

“Did you hear that?” she asked, her left ear making direct contact with the door.

Zach looked at her eyes, slowly nodding. They tried to open the door one more time, pushing and pulling it.

“Oh my God, Zach… Someone just screamed for help”

Jess ran to her parent’s room while Zach kept slamming the right side of his body against the door. The girl looked for the small box filled with emergencies keys her father kept for every room of the house, identifying the one of her room labeled as “Room Jess”. There was a chance they didn’t hear correctly or that the words were imprecise, but it was clear that someone was locked inside her room and she didn’t want to take it for granted.

 

 

Justin woke up to the sound of repetitive and loud noises of impact coming from the hallway. Growling and rolling his eyes, he stood up from the bed and hugged his stomach due to the nausea, some vomit threatening to come up, tasting the bitter flavor of bile and vodka mixed up together _._ He ignored it as he could. It felt pretty disgusting, but Justin Foley had never cared about some extra vodka teasing in his stomach.

The distant music resonated across the hallway to Justin’s ears as he slowly opened the door. His brain and his body still were reincorporating from the short but definitely comforting nap that Alex, basically, instructed him to have. And, of course, he smiled to himself to the thought of the boy.

If it was for Justin, he would’ve stayed a longer time on that bed laying his lazy ass down, trying to control the twister in his stomach and staring at the ceiling with the lights turned off. But no, because Zach had to be making all that stupid noise for whatever, probably weird reason.

“Dempsey…” Justin said closing the door behind him “What the fuck?”

Ignored by his friend, Justin blinked and stepped back after Zach’s left shoulder hit the wooden door one more time. Justin thought that maybe some of their friends got themselves trapped inside Jess’s room, because each one of them had their own respective level of stupidity and were capable of such things, even more if they were drunk.

Justin almost laughed.

He was about to crack some joke about who was the genius, but then he saw Jess approaching with stressed eyes, so he closed his mouth. And that wasn’t the one reason he kept the humor to himself, but the serious expression on Zach’s face and the serious tension between both of his friends.

The joke could wait.

Jess quickly introduced the key in the lock and opened the door. Justin frowned when he saw their expressions. Jess covered her mouth with both of her hands, and Zach squeezed his fists so hard the veins on his arms grew bigger, blue lines covering the muscles of his arms.

“Oh my God” Jess muttered.

“Bryce” Zach exclaimed, immediately running inside the room “You sick fuck”

It took one name, one fucking name to make Justin run next to Jess, feeling a shiver traveling down his spine. He was mentally prepared to see Bryce on top of some drunk girl, forcing her to do things she wasn’t conscious enough to do. Jesus, he would expect anything from Bryce. Justin didn’t want to deal with _another_ innocent person traumatized because Bryce’s bratty ass had the stupid idea of–

For a single second, Justin stood there, completely speechless. But then another second passed, and an immense furious feeling absorbed his whole body, because he thought he expected anything from Bryce, but he was wrong. It was Alex. Panicky, tearful, shaky Alex. _His_ Alex.

“I’m going to fucking kill you, Bryce. I swear I’m going to fucking kill you right now!”

Bryce was trying to stand up from the floor after Zach had pulled him by the shirt and pushed him down, but Justin was already in front of him throwing a punch to his face. Justin sat on Bryce’s stomach and started to throw punch after punch, feeling a wave of adrenaline take him, the rage making him shake. The drunkenness wasn’t completely gone, but it felt like it. The laziness was gone, the sleepiness was gone. All he felt was Bryce’s face against his right fist, and an enormous knot already formed down his throat.

Justin grabbed the collar of Bryce’s polo shirt with both of his hands and brought his face close, feeling the anger eating him inside “I should make the world a favor and fucking kill you”

“No wonder you changed teams, Justin” Bryce said in a low tone, low enough for just Justin to hear “I’d totally do it again… while you’re not around”

_Was that a fucking smirk on his face?_

“You fucking piece of shit” Justin almost sobbed, slamming him on the floor one more time, ready to punch his face all over again even if it would leave Bryce unconscious.

“Justin” Zach exclaimed, taking him by the shoulders “Fuck, Justin”

Justin shook off from Zach’s hands, hearing him say that he’ll take care of Bryce, but Justin couldn’t let him go. He couldn’t.

Alex felt Jess’ delicate hands holding his face, whipping off the tears that wetted his cheeks, massaging his pale skin with her thumbs. She wasn’t sure if it was appropriate for her to touch his face as he lied there in total shock, minutes ago with the wrong hands over him.

He concentrated on the air that his lungs craved, his arms hugging his stomach. All he heard was a sequence of punches, desperate voices in pain, Jess wanting to call the cops and sobbing, Justin threating to kill Bryce and crying, Zach telling that he’ll take care of it while trying to stop Justin, and the windows shaking due to the loudness of the music. Still, the sound of everything felt strangely distant to Alex, like if he was sinking underwater and a war just started on the surface.

Zach left the room with Bryce under his arm as soon as Justin stopped the fight. His hand didn’t stop on Bryce’s face, but on own eyes instead, covering his eyelids and dropping his shoulders, losing his mind to millions of thoughts.

He just… couldn’t believe it. While he was basically knocked-out next door, Bryce was trying to be with Alex. _His_ Alex. And he didn’t have to think too much about it to feel the anger and the wrath consume him.

He managed to reincorporate, eyes still teary and sore knuckles covered in blood. He turned around to see Alex laying on the bed, with Jess stroking his hair and caressing his face. Alex’s sight was still and straight, staring up at the ceiling, only he wasn’t precisely staring at it, he just seemed like staring at nothing.

“Come help me” Jess said to Justin, flickering to Alex’s pants.

Justin nodded and approached to the other boy. He couldn’t touch his jeans without feeling the disturbing sensation of Bryce forcibly pulling them down. He couldn’t touch them without feeling Alex’s fear.

“Fucking son of a bitch” Justin muttered, eyelids wrapping his eyes for a couple of seconds.

_I should’ve killed him._

He immediately brushed those thoughts away, not knowing if he could handle them without wanting to throw up and murder somebody.

Alex slightly panicked when Justin tried to pull his pants back up, moving by the sudden touch.

“It’s okay. It’s okay” Justin said, holding his arm and gently rubbing his thumb on his skin “It’s me”

Alex rested a hand on top of Justin’s, who still was caressing the skin of his arm. Even though that was the touch he was pleading for minutes ago, it felt intimidating. Very intimidating.

“I’m just going to put them back on, okay?”

Alex nodded to Justin’s soft voice and slightly elevated his hips when the other boy started to pull his jeans up. Justin buttoned his pants and fastened the belt so Alex didn’t have to do it himself. He did it somewhat unsure, not knowing if it was appropriate to do it in that exact moment due to the previous circumstances.

“Alex” Justin called, his voice so soft it almost came as a whisper “Alex, please tell me”

Alex reincorporated, hugging his knees with his arms in a firm grip without noticing, as if he still had to protect himself. It didn’t happened, Bryce didn’t do it. He made Alex feel like a completely embarrassed, useless shit. But it didn’t happen.

“Did he…?” Justin slowly started, trying to find Alex’s eyes.

The younger boy had his sight fixed on the floor, feeling the disgust penetrate his skin. The sensation of Bryce taking control over his will, making him feel physically repressed, a memory that refused to stop playing in his mind.

Alex denied with his head to answer Justin’s question, his eyes still staring at the floor.

Justin released a sight and pressed his forehead to Alex’s shoulder, placing a hand on the curve of his neck. His hand reached for Alex’s hair, stroking it as gentle as he could. No one, _no one_ gets to touch Alex like that. _No one_ gets to see him like that. Only Justin’s fingertips were allowed to touch his bare skin. Only Justin… only Justin.

“He tried…” Alex said, his voice sounding almost as low as a whisper “Everything happened too fast. I- I-”

“You don’t have to talk about it right now” Jess commented when he saw his friend sink more and more in Justin’s arms, gradually losing his mind “We’ll take you home, okay?”

“And I’ll stay with you” Justin murmured, his lips pressed on Alex’s forehead “I mean, only if you want”

“I’ll call Zach” the girl said standing up from the bed, her eyes already fixed on the screen of her phone “He’ll drive”

Justin held Alex as close as he could, kissing his hair and drawing invisible lines on the boy’s skin with his fingertips. He didn’t know if Justin’s nearness made Alex feel safe or more frightened instead. At the end, he didn’t let go because Alex never seemed to look uncomfortable. Better yet, he took Justin’s arm to feel his presence a little bit more.


End file.
